Last 8% Morning

Are you struggling spending so much time on your own during COVID-19? Are you feeling strong emotions or irritable or lethargic? In this session JP offers a three-point-plan to help you cope more effectively with social isolation.

We'd love to hear from you! Join us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/thelast8project/.

Music by @nop on CC Mixter, http://beta.ccmixter.org/people/Lancefield. 

In a very short time, we are working from home, or we have lost our job, or are home schooling our kids, feeling the effects of isolating alone or possibly being with others in cramped quarters.

If this isn’t bad enough on its own, we are also facing the virus of fear that comes with uncertainty. Are things going to get worse? Are our loved ones going to be OK? Is it OK to end social distancing now? How long can we keep this up? These strong emotions make it difficult to form an effective response when we face the difficult decisions and conversations in front of us.

# Emotional Intelligence 
# Strategies 
# Get Disciplined 
# Get Motivated 
# Mindfulness 
# Self-Help 

Are you feeling exhausted? Not able to feel much joy or pleasure? A bit cynical? If so, these are the telltale signs of burn out and it's no wonder, given the political and economic uncertainty upon us, all in the middle of a pandemic. 

It can be a lot. But know you can do something about it. In this episode we explore what the four drivers of burn out are and how you can use this insight to manage how you are feeling more effectively. 

Let's walk!

Holidays can be some of the more challenging times we face in the year.
We are with people who can sometimes trigger us. Or, we are feeling lonely and alone. Or tired and reactive.

This holiday season might be a particularly challenging one because of the pandemic.
In this episode, we describe 3 strategies to deal with the challenges you might face this year so this time of year is a little more bearable and enjoyable.

Let’s walk!

“My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus.”
Stephen Hawking

“Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things.”
Thomas Merton

"One of the secrets of inner peace is the practice of compassion.”
Dalai Lama

Join the Last 8% Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thelast8project

It has been a challenging year. We have done our best to manage the uncertainty, ups and down, turmoil and loneliness. Today, we look back and review 2020 and decide on a word of the year.

Curious to know what it is? Let’s walk!

If you want to guess what the word of the year is before you hear the podcast, go to Facebook group, Last 8% Project, and take a guess!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thelast8project/permalink/2844206585865121/?comment_id=2844226095863170

"You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."

Marcus Aurelius

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Are you finding that you are spending too much time on your phone? Surfing news sites and social media to your detriment? Looking for a powerful approach to changing this habit? Enter our 5 Minute Book Club series!

Instead of filling every vacant moment, whether going to  the bathroom first in the morning, or waiting for the kettle to bowl, with useless, mind numbing scrolling,  grab the book we are studying  and engage in our 5 Minute Book Club. 

Today, in the second episode of our series, we explore how to work with fear, examining the work of Pema Chodron and her great book, When Things Fall Apart.

It is a fantastic book that I am getting a lot out of. I hope you are to!

Let’s walk!

“No one ever tells us to stop running away from fear...the advice we usually get is to sweeten it up, smooth it over, take a pill, or distract ourselves, but by all means make it go away. "
Pema Chodron

“Once there was a young warrior. Her teacher told her that she had to do battle with fear. She didn’t want to do that. It seemed too aggressive; it was scary; it seemed unfriendly. But the teacher said she had to do it and gave her the instructions for the battle. The day arrived. The student warrior stood on one side, and fear stood on the other. The warrior was feeling very small, and fear was looking big and wrathful. They both had their weapons. The young warrior roused herself and went toward fear, prostrated three times, and asked, "May I have permission to go into battle with you?" Fear said, "Thank you for showing me so much respect that you ask permission." Then the young warrior said, "How can I defeat you?" Fear replied, "My weapons are that I talk fast, and I get very close to your face. Then you get completely unnerved, and you do whatever I say. If you don’t do what I tell you, I have no power. You can listen to me, and you can have respect for me. You can even be convinced by me. But if you don’t do what I say, I have no power." In that way, the student warrior learned how to defeat fear. ”
Pema Chodron

 “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” 
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt

Are you seeing others struggle with the amount of uncertainty and change going on? Do you want to help but are not sure where to start?

In this episode, we describe the three things you can do to start helping others manage uncertainty. Three things to you lead more effectively.

Let's walk!

“The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.”
Thomas Paine

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
Winston S. Churchill

“People make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous skilful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.”
Harry S. Truman

"A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

In today’s episode, the fifth in our Managing Uncertainty series, we look at a tool to help us be strong and powerful amidst change and uncertainty. It is called the ETA tool and it brings together mindfulness and lovingkindness as a powerful way to build an internal refuge to manage uncertainty more effectively.

 Let’s Walk!

“Painful feelings are, by their very nature, temporary. They will weaken over time as long as we don’t prolong or amplify them through resistance or avoidance. The only way to eventually free ourselves from debilitating pain, therefore, is to be with it as it is. The only way out is through.”
Kristin Neff
 

“You’ve been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.”
Louise L. Hay

“A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life.” 
Christopher K. Germer

In today’s episode, the fifth in our Managing Uncertainty series, we look at a tool to help us be strong and powerful amidst change and uncertainty. It is called the ETA tool and it brings together mindfulness and lovingkindness as a powerful way to build an internal refuge to manage uncertainty more effectively.

 Let’s Walk!

“Painful feelings are, by their very nature, temporary. They will weaken over time as long as we don’t prolong or amplify them through resistance or avoidance. The only way to eventually free ourselves from debilitating pain, therefore, is to be with it as it is. The only way out is through.”
Kristin Neff
 

“You’ve been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.”
Louise L. Hay

“A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life.” 
Christopher K. Germer

With everything going on politically, economically, with the pandemic, within your organization, maybe with your family, are you feeling a bit overwhelmed? Do you wish you had more insight and tools to better deal with these uncertain times?

In today’s episode, the fourth in of our Managing Uncertainty series, we look at one of the critical tools we need to develop to manage uncertainty more effectively. 

Let’s Walk!

“The task we must set for ourselves is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity.”

Erich From, German social psychologist

“It is an act of courage to acknowledge our own uncertainty and sit with it for a while.”

Psychologist Harriet Lerner

“We might feel that somehow we should try to eradicate these [8] feelings of pleasure and pain, loss and gain, praise and blame, fear and disgrace. A more practical approach would be to get to know them, see how they hook us, see how they color our perception of realty, see how they are aren’t all that solid. Then these eight challenges become the means for growing wiser as well as kinder and more content.”

Pema Chodron

Are you feeling disrupted by the amount of uncertainty and change in your life? Is it affecting your work performance or your happiness?

In today’s episode, the third in our Managing Uncertainty series, we take a deeper look at anger and blame, another habitual way we react to uncertainty, one that doesn’t serve us very well.

Let’s Walk!

“Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.”
Bertrand Russell